


ghosts in the sky

by dadlands



Series: the tie that binds [1]
Category: Metal Gear
Genre: Alternate Universe - Supernatural Elements, Canon Compliant, Gen, M/M, Tags to be added, as in if they died in canon theyre dead here too, ocelot can see ghosts. thats it, spoilers for the entire series
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-06-28
Updated: 2018-07-09
Packaged: 2019-05-29 16:37:11
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 3,645
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15077297
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/dadlands/pseuds/dadlands
Summary: Adamska sees ghosts.Some are helpful. Some are not. Some come and go as they please. Some stay with him as he ages.They all give him a leg up in a world of precarious loyalties and scattered information.





	1. faces gaunt

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> brief emetophobia warning for the end of venom snake's section, right above big boss 1984

_ introduction _

Adamska sees ghosts.

He never mentions this to anyone growing up, mostly because they shush him. Not many of them have solid forms, but a couple have distinguishable hands, fingers, faces. When he’s young and the GRU training gets rough, they wave at him from across military halls and make faces. If anything, it gives him a chance to practice keeping a straight face. When he’s asked to find out information about others, the ghosts that surround them tell Adamska all sorts of priceless knowledge.

He doesn’t hear a single one speak until he’s eighteen years old, He’s in the practice range, honing his aim, watching bullets ricochet off of walls when he hears a distant voice say, “You’re too young.”

Captain Ocelot spins around, ready to chew the head off of whoever spoke. He’s young, sure, youngest so far to be given permission to form a unit, but anyone who questions his authority is sure to be surprised.

The room is empty for a second, and then there’s a familiar shifting of air pressure and a more metallic taste in the air, unnoticeable to anyone but Adamska, and a man appears in front of him, taller than he is, with blood running down his cheek.

Adamska looks at the door, knows that there’s cameras in this room, and mutters in Russian, “Not here. Later.” The ghost gasps, but Adamska pays it no mind until he’s fired off a few more rounds and then stalks off to his quarters. There, where he knows that the cameras don’t work, he looks at the ghostly man, who hasn’t left his side.

“Who are you,” Adamska orders. The ghost raises an eyebrow at him, so Adamska repeats the question in English. At this, the ghost laughs. More languages, until the ghost’s glasses have cracked and he’s crying more blood, but from laughing. Frustrated, Adamska tightens his hands into fists and glares at the spectre. He freezes at it, and then smiles again, tears and blood running down his cheeks. Adamska wants him to speak again, but instead a phantom board with scrambled lettering appears.

“You look so much like her,” he arranges the letters to say in cool, flowing Russian.

“Do you have a name, phantom?” Adamska says.

“Yes,” he replies. “You may call me The Sorrow.”

__

_ naked snake - 1964 _

__

They’re fighting on the plane when Adamska notices a new ghost. She flickers in and out of existence while they duel, and when her face comes into focus, Adamska loses the upper hand in the fight and it quickly spirals in Snake’s direction.

It’s the Boss. A ghost. Adamska just saw her earlier, which means her death must have been within the past few hours. But she wasn’t one to be offed by normal soldiers, Adamska knew that much. And she’s hanging rather close to Snake, and if Adamska is hearing correctly, critiquing his CQC.

Adamska has always been a smart man. Naked Snake killed the Boss, and her phantom is now watching over him. He knew they were close, like mother and son, but for her to so quickly return to her pupil is incredible. For a split second, Adamska makes eye contact with her, a mistake on his part, because her eyes go wide and then narrow in thought in an expression that Adamska swears he’s seen before. Behind him, he feels the cold presence of the Sorrow return.

The Sorrow. The Boss. As the fight between himself and Snake,  _ John _ comes to a close, Adamska feels very foolish for not putting two and two together. The Sorrow must be one of the Cobras, not that the insufferable ghost would tell him anything concrete, and he can hear snatches of hurried conversation between the two phantoms over his own with the living.

He hears John yell as he jumps out of the plane, but almost louder than that he hears the Boss yell at him for being such an idiot.

__

_ kazuhira miller - 1975 _

__

The man may look American, Adamska thinks as he watches the blonde subcommander of Militaires Sans Frontiéres, but the small Japanese woman hovering close behind him tells another story. Zero has arranged for him to meet with a man named Kazuhira Miller, and offer business partnership. Apparently Miller is, as Zero put it, as “infatuated with Big Boss as you are,” and while Adamska doesn’t appreciate the jab, he does appreciate the intimate study into Miller’s character that this provides him. The older female phantom looking sadly and sternly down at Miller provides even more.

Adamska is practiced at manipulating people as well as ghosts, so he doesn’t look Miller’s shadow in the eye until he’s excused himself to go to the bathroom. At that point, he makes direct eye contact with the ghost and looks quickly to the left, something imperceptible to Miller and any other living person but obvious to all ghosts. It works; Miller strides off to talk to some of the remaining MSF soldiers, who are calling themselves  _ Diamond Dogs _ now.

His Japanese is broken and embarrassing, frankly, but he and the woman, who turns out to be Miller’s mother, make do. He makes out enough about Miller’s past to have the upper hand on him, and then some. In the end, Adamska’s glad he chose to speak to the man in an American Southern accent - it must be doing wonders for his image. 

Later that night, when Kazuhira is sitting alone on a stoop in Costa Rica, Adamska is not the first to join him. Instead, he sees Kazuhira’s mother, her memory restored to perfection, sitting next to him, speaking quietly in Japanese; too rapidly for Adamska to begin to understand, but whatever it is makes his heart ache. He quashes the unwanted feelings of loneliness and sits next to Kazuhira, offering him a familiar kind of cigar.

Neither of them smoke it, just let it sit in the ashtray and watch the fumes rise up, John’s scent washing over them. In the blowing smoke, Adamska can almost make out the figure of another phantom, taller, stronger, with Miller’s identical features.

__

_ venom snake, 1984 _

__

The phantom, ironically, has no phantoms of his own. This is the first thing that Adamska notes when he takes Ahab’s hand on the outskirts of a burning hospital. Instead, the only presence nearby is that of the Sorrow, who’s strangely insistent on hanging around more than usual, and sometimes writing things on his ethereal board about Adamska’s receding hairline. On horseback, Adamska pays little attention to any of the phantoms about, especially the particularly dark ones that live in the hospital that Ahab and John just escaped. He wasn’t there to see them, and from the familiar yet terrifying tug in his stomach, he really doesn’t want to.

“An abomination,” The Sorrow helpfully explains with his board, and Adamska sighs and rolls his eyes.

But the spirits catch up to them, and although Venom may not see it, Adamska’s horse senses the sudden tension when he realizes that it’s  _ Volgin’s  _ spirit riding alongside him.

Later on, in between going to find John and leaving the phantom, Adamska throws up on the side of the road. He’s always had a strong stomach for everything except the dead, and Volgin’s return dredges up not only metaphysical darkness but some sort of visceral reaction that Adamska never got rid of when he grew out of Major Ocelot. There, on the side of the road, he feels a phantom hand on his shoulder, cold, and is ashamed to have the Sorrow be watching him as he weakens.

__

_ and big boss, 1984 _

__

The Boss isn’t there when Adamska goes to meet his own. He briefly wonders if the coma maybe sent the spirits to the other realm, the one he assumes they actually want to be in, but dismisses it as soon as the Sorrow looks at John, just as confused.

He doesn’t think on it too much until he lights the cigar for Snake and watches him ride off into the distance. Adamska’s hands still burn through his gloves where his and John’s met when he was giving him the new passport. He’s pleased and walks back to his horse, but the Sorrow is exuding a strange energy.

“She’s not here,” he spells out.

In the emptiness of the night, Adamska allows himself to speak; his Russian is still perfect, pronunciation native. “What about it?” He voices.

“A reunion,” The Sorrow replies, and the skies begin to darken as a stream of blood runs down his cheek. Adamska scowls, and whatever face he’s making makes a tear roll down the other side of the Sorrow’s face.

“I’m sorry, Adamska,” is what the Sorrow spells out, but Adamska reads it and refuses to think on what it means.

__


	2. eyes blurred

_ big boss, 1999 _

 

Adamska visits Big Boss in Zanzibar Land. The way the place is run is too similar to the two Mother Bases of the past, and the location in Tselinoyarsk can’t possibly be a coincidence. Adamska is looking out the window of Jack’s office, and Jack is sitting at his desk, looking at his hat with the ZL stitches.

They’re both older; without him noticing, Jack’s hair has gone entirely white and his beard is better trimmed. Adamska is grey as well, and his hair has been grown out and he’s sporting a full mustache to match. The Sorrow won’t stop reminding him about the fact that his hairline is quickly receding. To stop him, Adamska crosses the office and grabs the hat off the desk, interrupting Jack’s sulking by putting it on his head.

“I’ve always liked these hats,” Adamska admits, and Jack smiles, just a little.

“Really?” He replies. “You dropped yours when we first met.”

It’s true. Adamska is taken back to the Ocelot Unit, and for a single moment, he’s surrounded by comrades, his pistol is in his hand, and Jack has no ghosts.

But the fact of the matter is Jack has a new phantom, or maybe an old one; Venom hangs out behind Jack, face going in and out of focus. Sometimes, he is the MSF medic. Other times, he is Big Boss in 1984, shrapnel sticking out proudly, and very rarely, he’s a complete mirror of the living man sitting at the desk in front of Adamska.

The Sorrow doesn’t know how to explain it.

Jack explains his plan to Adamska. It involves Solid Snake, who Adamska has yet to meet and is conflicted on whether he ever wants to, after Eli. At some point, one of Jack’s most loyal soldiers, ex-FOXHOUND Gray Fox walks in and salutes before giving an easy grin to the two older men. Fox’s ghosts are blurry as well, but even without form they give Adamska a chill.

Adamska bids farewell to Big Boss and Gray Fox, and on his way out quietly says goodbye to Venom as well.

He wonders where the Boss went, and from the sound of the Sorrow’s quiet tears, he’s not the only one.

 

_ psycho mantis, 2000 _

 

Adamska makes the pretense of minding his own business in FOXHOUND. Under Eli’s command, the group really has become somewhat of a collection of oddities, and the gas mask kid that Adamska vaguely remembers from ‘84 is one of them.

He’s met plenty of folks with gas masks, but Mantis’ strange aura is what Adamska remembers. Eli is plenty happy to be reunited with a childhood friend, and whatever makes Eli happy tends to fly with Adamska. Their working relationship is still tense, and Adamska secretly thinks that Eli still harbors a grudge against himself for beating him in a fight sixteen years ago.

One day, Mantis floats into Adamska’s office, when he’s polishing his revolvers and letting Johnny Cash play on the record player that everyone else makes fun of him for. So he’s gotten nostalgic in his old age, sue him.

“You can see spirits,” Mantis says, never one to beat around the bush. Adamska raises an eyebrow without looking at the psychic. This is something that he can’t avoid hiding, but he can bury the depth of his abilities as a medium from the younger man.

“Supposedly,” Adamska answers. There’s no more conversation for a while, the record skipping occasionally. Mantis hovers in the air, and Adamska is aware that he has the upper hand in the conversation. He could strike and guess what Mantis is going to ask next, but it’s more effective if the psychic asks himself.

“The Man on Fire,” Mantis says. In the past, Adamska would have grimaced at the mention of him, but now, he maintains cool indifference. “I was there.”

“Were you?” Adamska asks. The answer is ‘yes,’ they both know, and Mantis groans out loud at Adamska’s non-committal answers.

“Do I have any following me?” Mantis asks. At this, Adamska looks up. It takes a moment for him to adjust his sight to properly see any ghosts, but when he does, Mantis’ entourage  _ terrifies _ him. Very rarely do ghosts follow out of vengeance, but Mantis has collected a whole army. Adamska can see their energy fueling Mantis, and in turn he can see Mantis’ aura wavering in tune with the departed.

“None,” Adamska lies, and he isn’t surprised when Mantis leaves his office, seemingly convinced.

 

_ hal emmerich, 2004 _

 

When Adamska wakes up, the Sorrow is missing. Normally the old man is there to greet him and provide some sort of new information, like “Sniper Wolf is eating all of Vulcan Raven’s leftovers and he’s going to be passive aggressive about it for the next week.” Today, as Adamska shrugs on his long tan coat and puts on his gloves, there’s no such tidbits. It’s still silent as he drinks coffee in the kitchen, until the blissful peace is ruined by Eli stalking in angrily, violently pouring himself a cup of coffee, and sitting down to sulk at the table. His hair isn’t even gelled back.

“You’re chipper,” Adamska taunts. Eli flips him off and takes a sip of his coffee. “What’s wrong, boss?” He needles.

“You’re not going to  _ believe _ who they hired as team leader for the REX project,” Eli growls. “I really can’t let anyone on this fucking shithole do anything correctly.”

Adamska says nothing as Eli takes another sip. For a moment, he thinks he’s going to have to ask the younger man for details, but Eli slams the mug on the table and continues to yell.

“Emmerich! A god-damn Emmerich! Not just any Emmerich, but the son of the last one!” Eli yells. If he were a weaker man, Adamska would have taken a spit-take. Instead, he raises an eyebrow.

“Huey’s son,” Adamska mutters. If Venom is anywhere nearby, the bastard’s probably laughing his head off at Adamska’s plight. Maybe if he were to tell Miller, the man would single-handedly storm Shadow Moses and beat the life out of the younger Emmerich, and the problem would go away.

“Is he not qualified?” Adamska asks. Eli, still seething, looks directly at Adamska.

“No, he’s perfect for the job. I took the liberty of looking up Huey’s files, and it’s very curious. Hal Emmerich could be a clone of his father.” Adamska meets the furious glare with a cold, impassionate face.

“A clone,” Eli says again.

“I heard you the first time,” Adamska says. He wants to tell Eli that no one on God’s green earth would clone Huey Emmerich, but instead his says, “I’ll check it out, boss.”

Later that day, he enters the Nuclear Warhead Storage Building where Emmerich has been assigned a workspace. He watches the young man unnoticed from the door for a while, skills picked up from John going to good use, until Emmerich takes a break from programming and stretches.

“Hal Emmerich,” Adamska says as he walks towards him. Hal jumps in his seat, and Adamska is reminded that he’s only twenty-four, if his math is correct.

“T-that’s me, sir!” Hal awkwardly stands up and, after a moment’s pause, sticks his hand out to shake. Adamska looks at it briefly, and takes it, resisting the urge to crush Emmerich’s fingers. “It’s good to be working here, the robotics opportunities here are so interesting, and -”

“Revolver Ocelot,” Adamska cuts him off before he can continue rambling. He lets his eyes shift to the spiritual plane.

It’s his turn to jump. Glaring from behind Dr. Emmerich is the visage of the Boss, looking directly into Adamska’s eyes. In that instance, Adamska’s coat feels too heavy, his hair feels too grey, and he can feel the chill of Tselinoyarsk on his back. The chill becomes that of the familiar Sorrow, who is smiling wider than Adamska has seen before.

Hal has awkwardly sat down and gone back to his work, and Adamska excuses himself from the room. Under his breath, he mutters in Russian, to the Sorrow, “Tell her to meet me in my quarters tonight at 2100.”

The Sorrow’s board shuffles, and Adamska reads the words, “You can’t tell her what to do,” before groaning.

That night, a phantom appears behind Adamska as he’s washing his face. He can’t see her in the mirror, but he can hear her say in perfect, unaccented English, “You’re still a fan of cowboys.”

“I don’t know why you would care,” Adamska replies in his native Russian.

“I know he’s told you about the truth,” she says in German. Adamska suppresses a smirk.

“I suppose it’d be useless to pretend I don’t know who he is,” he quips, this time in Spanish. But his brain is still wired Russian, and it’s quick Russian that goes through his mind now, thinking about his relationship to the Boss, the cheek where she slapped him still stinging despite forty years difference. He doesn’t think of her as a mother, to the sorrow of the Sorrow. In a way, it helps him empathize with Eli when the younger man is truly being a little shit.

The Sorrow speaks now, breaking up the fight between mother and son. “She couldn’t come to you,” he says gently in his and his son’s mother tongue. “Because of a mental block you placed yourself.”

Adamska avoids the gaze of both phantoms and absentmindedly pours three drinks, laying them out on the table. Politely, the Sorrow takes a seat, but the Joy refuses, her arms crossed as she stares down at her son.

“Repression is a useful technique in keeping information secure,” Adamska mentions, setting the conversation to English. “Why the Emmerich boy?”

“Hal,” the Joy corrects. “His mother asked me too. And even if she didn’t...he has his mother’s heart.”

“And his father’s face and height and build and aptitude for robotics.”

“His hair is more silver, like his mother’s,” the Joy says, and her voice is almost wistful. Then immediately, her face straightens. “You called us in here. What did you want to ask?”

What did he want to ask? Adamska pauses. He has a plethora of questions for the Boss, down to managing soldiers and factoids about John as a teenager. He pauses too long, and the Joy begins to speak again, calling him out on his bluff.

“Nothing, then. Sentiment.” Her tone is anything but accusatory, and if it weren’t so Adamska would take insult. They sit quietly together, a shattered family, Adamska sipping his drink, the Sorrow with tears running down his face, the Joy’s scar glowing in ethereal light.

“I named you,” the Joy says. “On that battlefield. You screamed enough for the both of us. You were the first child born of that war.” Her scar glows impossibly bright, almost enveloping the room in pseudo-sunlight. “Adam. The first son.  _ Adamska _ .”

The light dies down as soon as Adamska’s name is spoken aloud by his mother.

“I need to go back to Hal,” The Joy says. “But don’t think you’re off the hook, mister.”

With that, she vanishes. The Sorrow is smiling and crying. Tentatively, more out of curiousity than any actual emotion, Adamska whispers, “Mother.”

The word dies on his tongue and is never spoken again.

 

_ kazuhira miller, 2005 _

 

Adamska’s revolver clicks as he aims it at Kazuhira Miller, who he hasn’t even given the dignity of dying on his feet. He’s not stupid; Kazuhira Miller was a drill instructor who could hold up his own against Big Boss, even after the loss of his arm and leg. To let him even breathe for a second longer is stupidity.

Miller is strangely sad looking in his bed without his sunglasses. The man really has lost it all, Adamska thinks.

“Put on your stupid sunglasses,” Adamska orders. “Anything else and I’ll shoot you.” 

“I never took you for a nostalgic,” Miller quips, surprisingly surly for an almost-dead man. When he looks back at Adamska, it’s the Kazuhira Miller who he ran Mother Base with. When he sees the swirling of a Japanese woman behind Miller, her phantom screaming at Adamska, it’s the Kazuhira Miller he sat with and inhaled deep breaths of Cuban cigars.

“I’ll let you have a few last words, too,” Adamska says. He’s eager to get rid of Miller because it means getting rid of the phantoms, getting rid of the woman weeping in his ear in a language he still can’t understand.

“Fuck you,” Miller says at the same time a phantom with an eyepatch and a bit of shrapnel in his head appear, and Adamska pulls the trigger before Venom Snake can look at him for longer than a second.

The room is dead silent as Adamska picks up the sunglasses and closes Miller’s eyes, but as he closes the cabin door and walks out into the Alaskan evening, he swears he hears V’s voice muttering something too quiet for him to understand.

Half of Adamska’s prophecy has come true. It’s time for the other half to begin.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> *roblox dying noise*  
> next chapter we finally meet solid snake  
> also i'll probably write an epilogue after that chapter.. it would be fitting to see this au from the beginning of the series all the way to the bitter end


End file.
